I have a lot of faith in Chahal: Kohli

Heaping praises on leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, whose six wickets helped India clinch the third and final T20 International against England by 75 runs, India skipper Virat Kohli on Wednesday said he has a "lot of faith" in the youngster's abilities.

Chahal returned with figures of 6/25, to trigger England's collapse which saw eight wickets going down for eight runs as the visitors' innings folded for a meagre 127 in response to India's mammoth 202/6.

Justifying the inclusion of two leg-spinners (Chahal and Amit Mishra) in the playing XI, Kohli indicated that the strategy worked as it exploited England's weakness against spin.

"Having two leg-spinners on a dry wicket, we always knew we would get a few chances. Mishy (Mishra) started it, and then Chahal took five wickets in two overs -- he knows these conditions, he knows how to bowl here," Kohli said in the post-match presentation.

"I have a lot of faith in him, and he plays with a lot of confidence. He has a lot of skill and he has the character as well," the Delhi batsman further said.

The 28-year-old also lauded the efforts of the seniors in the side, specially his predecessor Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Punjab southpaw Yuvraj Singh and pacer Ashish Nehra.

"It's not a bad thing when you have MS Dhoni behind the stumps and experienced guys like Ashu (Nehra) bhai and Yuvi (Yuvraj) pa. I'm taking advice from them whenever possible, they're so intelligent, a lot of credit goes to them."

"Mishra's two overs, and that one over from Jordan to Yuvi, that changed the momentum. It pushed us past 200, and that gave us the psychological advantage," he added.

On Dhoni getting his maiden half century in the shortest version, Kohli said: "I wanted to send (Dhoni) up the order, he's the one who says he'll come in later, that will give the team better balance."

"Come the big game, even in the one-day series, series decider, he stepped up, and he stepped up again today. It's a memorable series win for us, the whole tour. It's been a brilliant couple of months for the Indian team, going forward we know exactly what to do in each format," the captain added.

--IANS

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